Different Journey
by twilightdreamers
Summary: AU Ichigo died at a young age, Rukia never transferred her powers to him, and Aizen never even existed. Instead Ichigo dies and meets new friends. Together they go through the different ranks of Soul Society. {R&R} Some cursing here and there T just to be safe


**A/N: **This is a prologue-ish! Also I lack A LOT of MOTIVATION so releases are likely to come slow; also I have 3 other stories running! I've actually had this idea in my mind since last December. Some cursing here and there. ENJOY!

**I DON'T OWN BLEACH!**

-prologue-

The small girl lay there in the run down shack in the 80th district Zaraki. Her body, beaten, bruised, and bloody wracked with coughing fits and sputtering blood. Again, the pain constantly reminded her of what utter abomination she was. She had friends, more like followers, but they too eventually turned their backs on her. Her black and white hair was matted with blood and mud. Her once beautiful blue and red eyes were utterly dull and filled with hopelessness. Pale skin once pretty was littered with small cuts, deep gashes, and purple bruises. Agonizingly slow she managed to lift her own body up to stand with her frail thin limb shaking. She walked to the entrance of the hut and collapsed. Footsteps warily approached her but dared not to get close. They watched her twitch in pain from a distance not caring at all. Painfully she turned over to see the people picking up stones. They threw. Pain coursed through her body as became more bloody and beaten. Each stone, sharp or blunt brought immense pain. The cries followed the stone. Freak. Monster. Disgusting. This was usual routine for her, but this time, it was different.

A shadow of some sort covered her from the harsh heat of the sun. The stone stopped coming, instead they were hitting a new target.

"Why are you protecting that freak?!" a deep voice angrily spoke out.

"H-he must be a monster too!" a women's shaking voice said.

"That explains it! Kill em' both!" another voice shouted followed by cries of agreement.

The girl lay there with small tears in her eyes. This had happened so many times, it was sickening. Someone would attempt to save her, but to no avail would end up dying too, or they would run away. But this boy, this strange orange haired boy was different. She didn't know how he was different, except for the fact of his hair color, but he was. Her body was lifted as if it were a feather, then wind rushed around her. Her eyes, by now, were closed, tired by the effort of keeping them open and seeing the terrible sights. With her last bit of strength she asked a question to her mysterious savior.

"Your name…. What is it?" she asked weakly.

The boy smiled as her vision faded and answered. "Ichigo, Kurosaki Ichigo."

And everything went black.

(Divider)

_It was black everywhere. Her whole surroundings were black as if they were shadows. She saw a bright light but couldn't move. Why, she thought. _

"_**DO YOU WANT POWER?**__" a voice boomed. Not waiting for her reply it continued. "__**IF SO, WHY? WHY DO YOU DESIRE POWER? IF YOU DO NOT KNOW THE REASON LEAVE.**__"_

"_No!" she yelled. "I won't leave! Tell me what this place is?" She noticed the blackness around her inching closer to her by the second. _

"_**MY NAME IS-**__" the voice boomed but she couldn't hear it over the noise. "__**IT IS UNFORTUNATE BUT IT SEEMS YOU ARE NOT READY! LEAVE!" **__it said as she was engulfed by darkness. _

_She heard a voice calling her back._

"Hey! Wake up!" the childish voice yelled.

She shot up in surprise and felt a pain in her forehead and rubbed it.

"Oi! What the heck! Why did you jump up like that?!" a boy screamed.

She rubbed her ears. "Maybe because a certain someone started screaming in my ears, idiot." She said calmly looking towards the boy.

This was the first time she got to properly look at him. He looked about her age, around twelve, with the most outrageous orange hair and hazel/brown eyes.

He rubbed the back of his head smiling, looking sheepish. "Sorry about that and no I did not dye my hair."

The girl slightly opened her eyes wider. _Can he read my mind or something, _she thought curiously.

"No I can't read your mind if you're wondering, that's just the first thing people usually ask me." He explained getting up and grabbing a wooden cup and filling it with water from a large pot. He handed it to her as she drank readily.

"By the way my name's Kurosaki Ichigo if you don't remember."

She set the cup down and cleared her throat. "I'm Nakamura Shigure. Nice to meet you and this is also my natural hair an eye color."

Shigure's hair was jet black with white streaks running down every once in a while. It was pulled back in a loose low ponytail, but was usually worn high. Her eyes were red with a tint of gold.

"Really? It's really interesting to meet someone who also had strange color hair!" he said cheerfully.

"Why are you being so nice to me?" she questioned.

"Why not?"

"Didn't you hear what those people said? I'm a monster." She said sadly remembering things rather forgotten.

"But you're pretty much the same thing as me!" he protested. "What makes you a monster?"

"I attract other monsters. Those huge creatures with a hole in their chest. They rarely come around but every time they do they always destroy the area around me and kill tons of people. They're always after me." She said with a grimace.

"That doesn't make you a monster!"

She laughed. "You barely know me! I just wish I had power! To protect myself and those around me!"

She remembered the strange voice in her dreams calling to her. She did know her reason for wanting power, but why did it ask her if she knew?

He got up and propped himself up against the wall sitting next to her and sighed. "So do I. I had friends and they were killed by an attack by those monsters. I want power and I'm so desperate that I'm listening to an old man in my head who keeps telling me he'll eventually give me power!" he said frustrated.

"What?!" she said shocked losing her usual calm composure.

"Yeah you must think I'm crazy, but there's a dude in my head that keeps on telling me he'll give me power. He tries to tell me his name but I can't hear him every time! It's so frustrating!"

"Well the two of us must be in insanity together because I hear a voice in my head but it's not an old dude." She said.

They both grinned at each other. That was the start of their friendship together.

-a year and a half later-

"ICHIGO! Get your lazy ass up!" a voice called kicking a small boy in the rear.

Ichigo and Shigure both had grown a bit in the time since they met. Since then, they had moved from the 80th district to the 60th and were slowly making it up to the higher districts where they heard conditions.

"Shigure!" Ichigo complained as rubbed his butt. "You really didn't have to kick me!"

Over the time they spent Ichigo found out that Shigure had a different personality. One was violent, raring to get into brawls and, and rude. The other had a cold personality but was nice. They switched out every once in a while and when they did Shigure's hair color changed from black to white and eyes red to blue. Her name is Nanashi, a name created by herself. (not very creative because Nanashi means 'nameless' I think)

"You should be more gentle with Ichigo, Nanashi. You're really going to hurt him one day." Said a gentle voice.

A girl about the same age with short brown hair and green eyes stood there. She had joined their bunch only half a year ago and her name Haru.

"We're going to raid the grouchy old man's place today. He has 3 pots of water, a basket in the shelf full of food, and bit of spare money in a secret pouch inside the shelf. Ichigo, you're going to grab the one pot, Haru the money, and me the basket. We leave now!" she said as she headed out of the small hut.

"Nanashi are we going to head to the next district after this?" Haru asked skipping behind Nanashi.

"Yep. I'm planning on getting through at least 3 districts by the end of the week." She said as her stomach rumbled. "At least after we get some food!" She smiled.

Quickly the three quickly sneaked to the house of their target. They looked around and entered quickly getting to work. Ichigo grabbed the pot and got a firm grip on it. Haru kneeled down and located the pouch and grabbed the money. Nanashi jumped up and grabbed the basket. They started to flee when the man came back into the house.

"You kids! Stop there! Give me back my stuff!" the old man yelled throwing stuff at them. Multiple things hit them and some made them bleed, but they kept going.

"Hurry!" Nanashi yelled running faster.

They all picked up their pace as they headed out of the district. Success.

-2 years later, 30th district-

"Move it! Let's go!" Ichigo yelled to his 2 other companions as they ran down a narrow alley.

Ichigo was the tallest now, but still only 4'11". Shigure/Nanashi were 4' 9" and Haru was 4'8". They were currently being chased. When they finally got away the collapsed in exhaustion.

"I'm beat!" Ichigo stretched out as he got glugged down a cup of water.

Shigure silently nodded her head in agreement. Night was falling quickly as they rested for the day.

(next day)

The three of them woke up early and decided to walk around town. They had turned into a narrow alleyway to take a shortcut to the place they needed to go.

"Move it assholes!" a girl with red hair flashed by them holding a large pot.

"You there! Get that girl!" a man yelled.

The 3 quickly followed after her going unnoticed as she led them to small hut.

"Phew! Safe at last!" she sighed as she sat on the ground opening up the pot and chugging down the water.

Shigure walked in. "Not really." She said as the other 2 followed behind.

An expression of shock crossed her face. "You guys followed me?! Creepers! Did you guys follow me because you wanted water?"

Ichigo scratched his head. "Not really, we're just wondering what you were doing."

As he said that the girl's stomach growled loudly. "Kinomoto Hikaru." She mumbled.

Ichigo leaned closer and put a hand on his ear. "What's that? I couldn't hear ya!" he said in a taunting tone.

She stood up and grabbed him by the ear and screamed, "KINOMOTO HIKARU! That's my name in case you're a bigger dumbass than I thought."

Haru smiled gently. "Do you want some food?"

Hikaru nodded.

"Follow us then." Shigure said quietly not waiting for a response, leaving.

The three of them followed Shigure into the narrow alleyway that led to their 'home'. She walked to the end, which led to a dead end, and scanned the area around. When she was sure the coast was clear she jumped up ledge which seemed way too high for a normal person to jump. A mechanical sound came out as a lever was pulled and a mini stairwell. They climbed into a small dimly lit room as Shigure lit 2 candles. She reached under a low table and pulled out an old, much used basket. Grabbing out a neatly wrapped object she unraveled it and showed 4 rice balls. She handed out one to each person as they all hungrily ate.

Haru finished first being the neatest. She gave Hikaru a warm smile. "I don't think I've properly introduced myself. I'm Kagami Haru." She held out her hand.

Hikaru took it and did the same as they each introduced themselves.

"Are you guys from around here?" Hikaru asked as she wiped the crumbs off her face.

"Nope, we're from Zaraki!" Ichigo puffed his chest.

"Really?! I'm from Inuzuri." She said. "I came here because of this." She slowly closed her eyes and a huge glowing white ball about 8ft. tall appeared. "Apparently this is called reiatsu. Shinigami have it and apparently if you have it you can become a Shinigami!" she said excitedly.

"Interesting." Shigure said.

"I heard from an elder that people that get REALLY hungry have A LOT of reiatsu. That's why I'm heading for the 1st district so I can become a Shinigami! And to steal from the Shinigami. Think about it Shinigami have ALL the money they need and they probably get 3 meals a day and get to eat as much as they want. We'll steal from them and they lose nothing!" she said brightly.

"Great idea!" Ichigo agreed and they grinned at each other mischievously.

Ichigo ruffled Hikaru messy red hair as her green eyes looked different somehow.

_Why do I get the strangest feeling that these two are going to be a pain in the ass? _Shigure thought with dread.

-end-

**A/N: **So? How was it? I appreciate it if you review! Hope you liked it!


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